


Keep Your Dead Buried

by teacup_tyrant



Series: Crow Conversations [1]
Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, kaz has a good reason for not showing up to dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 07:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17935631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacup_tyrant/pseuds/teacup_tyrant
Summary: “Why didn't you tell me?”“Same reason you didn't tell me about your visit to Pekka Rollins' country home, I expect.”Inej supposed that was fair.





	Keep Your Dead Buried

It had been a long night. 

Kaz braced himself for the pain of three flights of stairs, the reward of his bed enough to keep him going. He had been supposed to make an appearance at the Van Eck residence earlier in the evening. Jesper and Wylan loved to throw elaborate dinner parties when Inej was in town and Kaz had been dreading the gathering for the past week. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on who you asked), business had come up once again. Business that he had needed to see completed in person. He wondered if Inej had been angry when he didn't show.

The question was answered as he opened his door and found Inej perched on his desk, an irritated look on her face.

Kaz sighed wearily and shut the door behind him. “Hello, Wraith.”

“Did you forget something tonight?” She asked in a dangerously sweet tone.

“No, I didn't forget.”

“Then where have you been, Kaz?” Inej demanded, a fire in her eyes. 

“I hadn't realized I needed your permission to conduct business,” Kaz responded, sidestepping her and disappearing into his attached room.. He could practically feel Inej's anger permeating through the wall as he slid off his coat and his gloves. He placed them in the coat's inside pocket, sure that he wouldn't be needing them again tonight. When he returned to his office, Inej was still sitting with her arms crossed. 

“I'm still part of the Dregs, Kaz. I don't know why you can trust them with your plans but not me. You could have at least told me that you wouldn't be-”

“It was about Tante Heleen.”

“It... what?” The fire in her eyes was suddenly extinguished. 

“You heard me,” Kaz said, lowering himself onto his chair. Inej, now completely silenced, mimicked him and slowly sat down across from him, unfolding her arms. “I had intel that she'd been operating in the University district, so I sent Jesper to investigate last week. He's familiar with the area and can hold his own in an intellectual conversation, which is more than I can say for some of the Dregs-”

Inej rolled his eyes at his arrogance.

“-so he was able to ask around and confirm my suspicions. She's been gathering up girls at the university who have been struggling with payments and offered them a quick way to make money. The ones desperate enough started working for her. I think you can guess what that means.”

Inej knew exactly what that meant.

“I did some digging at the Staadhall. Businesses have to be registered, especially if you're running it out of a residential location, and her name wasn't in any of the books. Plus, she was operating out of district. You can't just operate a flop house in the rented rooms of a tenant building, even if she'd been paying off the rest of the lodgers to keep quiet. It drives down the value of everything in the area. And nobody wants the university to develop a bad reputation.”

“This all sounds very... by the book.”

“It was. Everything I did was perfectly legal. I had someone tip off the Staadwatch and they busted her themselves.”

“You went to the Staadwatch?!”

Kaz shrugged. “It was an easy job. Why waste time and resources when someone else can get it done for me?”

“So... what happened to her?”

“Banned from operating any business in Ketterdam. And with that on her record, no one wants to hire her either. She left the city tonight. I made it my business to personally see her off,” he said with a scornful smirk.

Inej let out a short breath. Thank the Saints. She knew Tante Heleen had been forced to give up the Menagerie but that didn't mean the matron wouldn't run the same game from another location. Inej still walked on the opposite side of the street from the building, even though it had long since been converted into some sort of cheap hotel. She didn't fear the building anymore, but it still struck a chord of unpleasantness. She still expected to see Tante Heleen one day, in the dingy corner of a bar or lurking the alleys of the Barrel at night. She was a shadow that Inej could never seem to shake, no matter how fast she ran from it. 

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Same reason you didn't tell me about your visit to Pekka Rollins' country home, I expect.”

Inej opened her mouth to retort but her words died on her lips. She supposed that was fair. 

When word started circulating that Rollins might be planning a return to the city, Inej hadn't hesitated to put him in his place without consulting Kaz. She hadn't wanted to bring up any memories, or for Kaz's darker side to appear again. Rollins had been buried and Inej wanted him to stay a full six feet under with no chance of resurfacing. Maybe it had been selfish. Kaz had become softer in her eyes and she didn't want him to regress back into Dirtyhands. If it was a selfish want, at least it had been born out of a desire to protect him from himself.

Kaz had only wanted to spare her from the same memories she had spared him. 

“You aren't angry?” He inquired, watching her closely.

Inej sighed and shook her head. “No. I know why you did it.” I did the same thing.

“I'm sorry I didn't make it to Wylan's tonight.”

A smile played at the corner of her lips. “You're what? Say that again.”

“I will not,” Kaz huffed. “One time deal.”

“Sure. Only until the next time you make me angry.”

“Then I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Inej grinned. She knew Kaz would never stop doing things that irritated her, but at least he acknowledged when he messed up. And the infamous bastard of the barrel could even be charming about it. 

“I still have room for dessert, though,” she said, abruptly changing the topic.

“Oh?” Kaz asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Wylan has a new cook,” Inej stated non-nonchalantly. “She didn't bake the spekkoek all the way through. I could go for something... sweet.”

“I think I know a place,” Kaz said slowly.

“Perfect,” Inej said with a smile and held out her hand. 

The two made their way out of the Slat, fingers intertwined, leaving their demons behind in pursuit of waffles.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone finish King of Scars and immediately start pining for Six of Crows again? This has been sitting on my computer for over a year so I figured I should finally post it. Thanks for reading!


End file.
